The University of Ottawa and its Senate, from the eyes of students

GSAED Stands with SFUO on Senate Video

Last week, the SFUO (undergraduate student association) released a strong statement in favour of video transparency at Senate, available HERE. GSAED (graduate student association) followed with its own statement this week:

The University of Ottawa, as a registered institution of learning and charitable organization, is publicly funded. This legal and fiscal status therefore demands that the administration of the University of Ottawa reports to the entire campus community as well as to the general public. In other words, the University’s administration as well as its bodies must be completely transparent and apply the highest good governance norms. For this reason, the Senate adopted its Policy on Video Recording, Broadcasting and Picture Taking during the Senate Meetings on March 2nd, 2009.

Despite this moral and legal duty to be transparent, the video recording of the October 3rd, 2011, Senate meeting was stopped without valid reason and in clear violation of the policy mentioned above.

GSAÉD considers this interruption of the audio-visual recording process to be inappropriate and unacceptable. We therefore ask, Mr. President, that you act immediately in person to rectify this situation and ensure that absolute transparency and good governance be upheld in the Senate. We also ask that the recordings of the Senate meetings be made available in their entirety and without cuts on the University’s website, as established by the policy pertaining to this matter.

We await your written reply specifying the measures that you intend on taking to ensure transparency and good governance are respected, as outlined in the Policy on Video Recording, Broadcasting and Picture Taking during the Senate Meetings.